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. 2022:35:103116.
doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.103116. Epub 2022 Jul 13.

Brain structural alterations in autism and criminal psychopathy

Tuomo Noppari  1 , Lihua Sun  2 , Lasse Lukkarinen  3 , Vesa Putkinen  3 , Pekka Tani  4 , Nina Lindberg  5 , Emma Saure  6 , Hannu Lauerma  7 , Jari Tiihonen  8 , Niina Venetjoki  9 , Marja Salomaa  9 , Päivi Rautio  9 , Jussi Hirvonen  10 , Juha Salmi  11 , Lauri Nummenmaa  12
Affiliations

Brain structural alterations in autism and criminal psychopathy

Tuomo Noppari et al. Neuroimage Clin. 2022.

Abstract

The goal of this study was to elucidate the anatomical brain basis of social cognition through two disorders with distinctively different phenotypes of social interaction. We compared structural MR images of 20 individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 19 violent offenders with high psychopathic traits, and 19 control participants using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Our earlier study showed lower grey matter volume (GMV) values in the insula, frontal cortex, and sensorimotor cortex of the offender group compared to controls. In the present study, the images of the ASD group revealed lower GMV in the left precuneus, right cerebellum, and right precentral gyrus in comparison with controls. The comparison between the offender and ASD groups showed lower GMV values for the right temporal pole and left inferior frontal gyrus in the offender group. There was also an overlap of both disorders in the right pre-central cortex, showing lower GMV compared to controls. Our findings suggest structural differences between violent offenders with high psychopathy traits and ASD individuals in the frontotemporal social brain network areas, previously associated with empathy. We also provide evidence of similar abnormal structures in the motor cortex for both of these disorders, possibly related to uniting issues of social cognition.

Keywords: Empathy; Frontotemporal cortex; Pre-motor cortex; Social brain networks; Social cognition; Voxel-based morphometry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A. Brain regions with lower GMV in Offender versus ASD group. The data is FDR-thresholded at p < 0.01. Tpole = Temporal pole, IFGtriang = Inferior Frontal Gyrus, Triangular part B. Brain regions with lower GMV in ASD versus Controls. The data is FDR-thresholded at p < 0.01 PreCG = Precentral Gyrus, PCUN = Precuneus, CE = Cerebellum C. Brain regions with lower GMV in Offenders vs Controls. The data is FDR-thresholded at p < 0.01 PreCG = Precentral Gyrus, Fpole = Frontal pole, INS = Insula, Cg = Cingulate Gyrus, ITG = Inferior Temporal Gyrus, TFUS = Temporal Fusiform Gyrus. The range from FDR correction to T-value of 4 is used for better visualization of the variance in the scale.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Overlapping (green) brain regions with lower grey matter volume in ASD (red) and Offender groups (blue) compared to control group. The data is FDR-thresholded at p < 0.01. PreCG = Precentral Gyrus. The range from FDR correction to T-value of 4 is used for better visualization of the variance in the scale. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Regional GMV in frontal, temporal, insular and precentral regions of interest (ROI) across the three groups. Asterisks denote statistically significant differences between groups.
Supplementary figure 1
Supplementary figure 1
Supplementary figure 2
Supplementary figure 2
Supplementary figure 3
Supplementary figure 3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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